Determination of emetine in the presence of its decomposition products

Abstract

The study of the kinetics of the decomposition of emetine points to the importance of using a method of determination in which the decomposition products do not interfere.

It is shown that the method of separation by thin-layer chromatography followed by extraction of the emetine spot and measurement of its ultraviolet absorbance provides reliable results for thermochemically as well as photochemically decomposed emetine solutions. Comparison of this method with a direct spectrofluorimetric measurement of emetine in the presence of its decomposition products shows that the latter method is also satisfactory. The BP method gives reliable results with thermochemically but not with photochemically decomposed emetine solutions. The direct spectrofluorimetric method is preferred, because of its rapidity, simplicity and sensitivity (3 × 10^–6M compared with 3 × 10^–2M for the ultraviolet spectrophotometric method).